Pawan Hans crash: Body of one pilot found, wreckage traced

The Coast Guard on Monday recovered the body of one of the two pilots who were missing since their Pawan Hans helicopter crashed into the Arabian sea off the Mumbai Coast last week.

The Coast Guard also found wreckage, including cockpit, of the 14-seater VTPWF Dauphin aircraft, five days after the mishap occurred on November 4.

At the time of the incident, Captain E Samuel and T K Guha were on board of the copter. However, the body recovered on Monday is yet to be identified.

"Wreckage of ditched Pawan Hans helicopter located and cockpit with body of one of the pilots was recovered," a Coast Guard spokesperson said.

He said the recovery of other parts of the chopper was in progress.

The 2001-make Pawan Hans helicopter crashed during night landing practice after it had taken off from the ONGC installation on Wednesday night.

The door of the aircraft was sighted by the Navy and Coast Guard soon after it had crashed into the sea.